​When I was young, I loved going to Purchase Day Camp at SUNY Purchase in Westchester, NY, where I lived from the ages of birth through nine. At Purchase, I got my first nickname - Bassy. I made some of my first true friends. I gained confidence in swimming and learned the joy of group singing. It was affordable, near home, and comfortable. I loved camp.

I came to go to many different camps as a young person, and then to work at a few as well. Pretty much every summer as a teenager. After a few years off, I returned to working at camp - this time for the first time at a sleepaway camp - Camp Hess Kramer in Malibu, CA. CHK (as it is called), is a Jewish sleepaway camp in the Reform movement and it is where I learned to appreciate Jewish immersion, Jewish joy, Jewish song, identity, dance, and the rhythm of a Jewish day.

Jewish summer camp is not for everybody. It can bring up all kinds of feelings about class, politics, exclusion, insularity, and inadequacy. This is a basic list of the neuroses and fears I had about the idea of spending every day all day with only Jews doing Jewish things.

Then I met the Reconstructionist movement's camp, Camp Havaya (formerly called Camp JRF), and things started to shift for me. It was basically a camp for a lot of people who had my fears and neuroses - people who wanted radical inclusivity, Jewish positivity, financial accessibility, fun, identity-building, and evolving. It was a delight and a relief to find others who wanted something similar there. This summer, the Reconstructionist movement opens a new camp - one that is specifically arts based - in Southern California, and they are inviting people in Reconstructionist communities up and down the West Coast (and anywhere else) to give it a good look. They have some remarkable financial aid packages with a commitment to make camp accessible to anyone who wants to attend. Imagine your young person flourishing in an environment designed for quirky, artsy, brilliant, talented Jewish young people - infused with many of the Reconstructionist values that Kadima also aspires to.

On Saturday, February 3, Julianne Schwartz, assistant director of Havaya Arts will pay a visit to Kadima School to meet parents and bring some of her talents as a performer and youth leader to our young people and adults, while also making herself available to meet parents, answer questions, and let perspective camper families know of some ways to make camp accessible.

Help us welcome Julianne to Kadima on Saturday and bring your questions!

Maru Mora-Villalpando, a relentless, inspiring, and dedicated leader of NWDC Resistance, has been served a deportation order. Below is an urgent petition to ICE. Please take a moment to sign and share.

The Seattle office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has served a “Notice to Appear,” otherwise known as a deportation notice, to Washington-based community activist and mother, Maru Mora-Villalpando.

Maru leads Northwest Detention Center Resistance (NWDCR), an organization that was co-founded when immigrants held at the Northwest Detention Center began a series of hunger strikes in 2014 protesting their inhumane treatment. Mora-Villalpando’s efforts have transformed the NWDC from an ignored facility in an out-of-the-way location to a key site of local resistance, with weekly rallies and vigils outside its gates.

Now, in an unprecedented and arbitrary act of retaliation ICE has chosen to target Mora-Villalpando directly. ICE is now purposely targeting people such as Mora-Villalpando who are organizing against the agency and the Trump administration’s racially-motivated deportation agenda.​“ICE only knows about me because of my political work,” explains Mora-Villalpando. “I have spoken out to defend immigrants in detention and shared my story as an undocumented mother. I have sat in meetings with immigration officials and challenged their practices. They are an agency whose actions have already been devastating to my community. But with the letter they delivered to my house, they are showing themselves to be an agency that silences any opposition to their practices,” she concluded.

When I think of Kadima, our beloved justice-seeking community, what comes to mind is our Women’s Torah. I see the bold lettering, the “black fire on white fire,” and admire the ornate artwork that embraces and enfolds our Torah.

The Women’s Torah embodies Kadima on three levels:

First is the collectivity of the Torah: It takes all of us. You can see this in the distinct handwriting styles of the five different scribes who wrote our Torah.

Second is what the Women’s Torah represents as a rebellion against patriarchy and indeed all forms of injustice and dehumanization. Kadima’s act of commissioning the Torah 17 years ago was itself an act of resistance to the unjust tradition that only men could scribe a Torah. In holding up the Women’s Torah we are lifting up the right of all members of our community to be fully recognized and treated as equals.

And third, in creating our own sefer Torah, Kadima honors our Jewish history and traditions, with all its wonder, its complexities and ambiguities.

The Women’s Torah was the product of a remarkable group of Kadima members, who years ago challenged themselves and all of us to do something that had never before been done.

Today, Kadima is striving with the same ambition, to build a vibrant community that serves our spiritual and educational needs, that builds friendship and love, and that allows us to engage together in the vital, urgent work of Tikkun Olam.

But Kadima needs your financial support as well, to continue growing and to serve as a vital place of resilience and resistance in today’s world.

At this point we’ve raised $83,200 in our budget in donations and pledges toward meeting our budget of $196,000 for the year ending June 30, 2018. That means that halfway through our budget year, we still have to raise $112,800.

We can reach this goal, with your generosity and help. The members of Kadima’s Board of Directors have pledged collectively to contribute more than $5,000 toward the end-of-year fundraising. So please join us, if you are able, with a tax-deductible gift to Kadima today.

Can you give $5,000? $1,000? $500? $100? $36? Any contribution that you can make is generous.

​Working together, we will live out the spirit of justice that is embodied in our Women’s Torah.

You know the benefits of a strong activist Jewish community, otherwise you wouldn’t be reading this. Our Kadima community is growing every day. We’re in the streets with #BlackLivesMatter, Water Protectors, and our neighbors. We’re studying Jewish values & Hebrew in Kadima School, and studying Talmud with Gaymara. On the days when we hurt deep in our souls, we sing with joy at the High Holidays, and at Niggun l’tzedek. Our sanctuary committee is coordinating with activists across the region to keep vulnerable folks safe across the Pacific Northwest. All of this is possible because of you.

As we move towards the darkest time of the year, we look to you to lighten all of our spirits by giving a generous end of the year gift. 2017 has been a challenging year, but Kadima continues to be a light and a resource in your community.

As we expand our activities, our expenses have gone up. We were thrilled to hire Mollie Wolf as our Youth and Family Organizer, and we’ve hired more teaching staff for our growing Kadima school. 75% of our entire budget goes to pay for the salaries of Rabbi David and our fabulous staff and faculty.

Every donation is generous & appreciated, no matter how modest. Each gift puts us that much closer toward keeping your Kadima community vibrant. Consider that:$2,500 pays a Kadima teacher for a year$360 pays for a hot shabbat lunch for the community$36 pays for a box of shabbat candles​$18 keeps us online for three months

Your generous, tax deductible gift as this year draws to a close will make a world of difference. Thank you so much for supporting progressive Judaism in Seattle. I am so grateful you are a part of the Kadima community.​Sarah TuttleKadima TreasurerOn behalf of the Kadima boardPS - Your year-end gift today will be the lift we need in this difficult year. $50 can make a big difference in keeping Kadima the diverse and passionate resource for you during these challenging times.

Nominations are now (12/9/2017) open for Kadima’s Board of Directors. Our 2018 board has 12 seats; 6 of those seats are up for election in January. All positions are for two-year terms. Nominations will remain open until January 15. Elections by email or in-person will be held Jan. 17-24, 2018. All members of Kadima are eligible and encouraged to participate in this vote.

Board Nominations must be submitted by 11:59 pm Jan. 9, 2018. (Nominees must be current members of Kadima.)Open seats this cycle: 6Term Length: 2 years

If you would like to make a board nomination (yourself, or somebody else):Send an email to office@kadima.org with the subject line, “board nomination.” In the email, write “I wish to nominate ___________ to the Kadima Board of Directors.”

If you are a nominee, please submit the following to office@kadima.org by Jan. 15, 2017: A short biography of no more than 200 words. A photo of yourself Brief answers (no more than 100 words for each answer) to the following 2 questions:1. What is your vision for Kadima in the next five years, and how can your leadership contribute to this?2. Kadima’s budget is about $200,000. What ideas, initiatives, and energy would you contribute to help the community reach this target?Candidate biographies, pictures, and answers will be distributed to all voting Kadima members as part of the balloting process.

Kadima Board Member Expectations and Responsibilities: 1. Guide the overall direction of Kadima2. Lead in organizational planning and goal-setting3. Lead in fundraising efforts – make a personal contribution (as able), and actively participate in soliciting funds through contributions, grants, events, etc.4. Establish and serve on committees5. Approve and oversee compliance with annual budgets6. Review and approve contracts, except in routine operational matters7. Guide the work of the rabbi/education director

The board meets once a month for 3 hours, and 2-3 times a year for day-long retreats. The next retreat is Sunday, Feb. 11, 2018. Each board member is expected to serve as committee chair or board liaison for a segment of Kadima’swork. Board members can expect to spend an average of 2 hours a week on board duties, in addition to the board meetings. Officers generally spend additional time on their duties. Board membership takes work, but it’s also rewarding – and we’re a fun group to be with!

If you are potentially interested in running or want to find out more information about the board, we encourage you to contact: Secretary Karen Wolkofsky (kwolkofsky@outlook.com) or Treasurer Sarah Tuttle (sarallelagram@gmail.com).We welcome your interest!

When initially asked to write a blog post on sanctuary for Kadima, I thought "nope." It is not that I do not think sanctuary is a great theme for a progressive shul to embrace, especially a shul as peace loving, accepting and embracing as Kadima is and continues to be. It is not that I do not think that we all deserve to seek, foster and embrace sanctuary, as this year has been the pits of despair for any of us who care about human rights, the environment or just the concept of life in general. For me the struggle is the word itself, sanctuary. I just...don't really know what it means.Sanctuary implies some kind of normal baseline we need to return to that I am not sure I personally have ever really experienced, let alone know how to write about. Not as a trans person, not as an immigrant, not as an Ashkenazi Jew. I feel like sanctuary is a word invented by pioneers in the old west, gently brewing mulled cider for church the next day, pretending there are not corpses of indigenous people littered outside, and anticipating the immediate perceived blessing of G-d for their holy manifested bloody and soon to forgotten destiny. A sense of belonging not only inherited from the privileged but also violently upheld and then universally un-talked about. It feels falsely optimistic. Perhaps that is a little harsh, but then again it also accurately illustrates my writers block on the topic. However if there has been false sense of sanctuary nationally embraced in America, or even in wealthy pockets of the coastal cities, or in information silos of the liberal/conservative binary, I think we can all agree that the lie of sanctuary is now being blown up, torn up, burned and jettisoned out of our consciousness lately. Everything is suddenly very visibly and identifiably unsafe. Democracy has turned to something more like autocracy, our president might have dementia, a personality disorder, a sexual abuse compulsion or a combination of the three and our collective normal has calibrated to his limited and chaotic reality... oy vey.I personally have never experienced a time like this politically, I feel genuinely afraid of what I read daily. Where attacks of the free press, on the government, on civil rights, on the environment are so frequent there is not time to mount a counter attack before the next one comes down the pike. The near constant barrage of violence, power, and abuse truly reveals a reality those of us who are privileged have been able to ignore for a long time, that despite the story of order and justice we have been taught, human's dark addiction to oppressive behaviors, wealth and power might actually lead to a collapse of society as we know it. Scarier still, (or joyous still if the collapse of our cruel society is something you have been waiting for,) we don't know when, how or to what impact. How horrifying. How terrifying.

How incredibly true feeling. I cannot speak for anyone else, but in the few moments I am not having panic attacks, an unnatural calm washes over me. It is an emotion really, an old emotion or mind state passed down to me from my ancestors. An emotion that can only be described as "yup."

​So what do we do? Well, like most of us here at Kadima, I have taken to fighting back. The never ending meetings. The initiatives. The predominantly white circles of young people with asymmetrical haircuts where interrupting is not allowed and no one remembers to bring food. The petitions, the protests, the opinion pieces, the self riotousness. I have been doing all of that, and for all of us who have been out there pushing hard beyond what we thought possible, you have to continue. We need you, even if the lack of snack food at your meetings is starting to to seem suspicious to me. (That is right, I just implied you are cheap.)

I realized today though that there is something else we can do. Something Jews have been doing forever. Something my family taught me to do to prevent the infection of false American Optimism at a young age. A gift bestowed on us by our anxious ancestors who put up with all this sort of insanity and then some to let us be alive and here today. We can laugh.

​I mean all of us mining our pain collectively for absurdity laughter. I mean reaching that point of complete emotional break down and finding a hypocrisy to giggle about instead laughter. I mean sinking deep into the pain and finding the moment of joy in the illumination of insanity laughter. I mean crying about what we have lost and laughing about what is remaining at the same time laughter. I mean laughing as a means of surviving this mess. Our laughter is resistance. Our laughter is our birthright. Most importantly, our laughter protects us from going insane too.

So dig deep friends. Get a chevre of jokesters. Go fart on a family member, or a Trump supporter. Watch a Mel Brooks movie. Start making fun of each other kindly, maybe enjoy it instead of taking it personally. Look at someone you love and slap your forehead, chuckle and exclaim “ I did not think after Bush it could get worse!” Chuckle even louder when someone inevitably responds “ What are you saying?!?! OF COURSE IT CAN ALWAYS GET WORSE, what’s the matter with you? Kina hora.”Start small, go big. And as they reach for our souls with their scary vacuum of bottomless greed, destruction and fury give em a wink. Maybe the finger. Smile. They can take our country. They can take our health. They can even take our lives. But no one can take our dignity unless we let them.

As we move into winter and the rainy reason, we were reflecting on this dvar torah which was originally shared at Kadima for Parshat Ha'azinu. Let us take guidance from our ancestors, and confess now to all who have been gracious toward us, who have sustained us with their kindnesses and supported us steadfastly in spite of our resistance and resentments, that we are deeply grateful to them and that we cannot imagine our lives without them. We know many of our members have experienced a great deal this year, and wanted to take a moment to reflect on this as a way of supporting and honoring you and your loved ones during this season of change and reflection.

D’var Torah on Ha’azinu (Deut. 32) 25 elul 5777by Simone Adler

Shabbat Shalom. Here we are at the end of the year, the final chapters of Deuteronomy before we turn the Torah back to Genesis. This is a poignant time of transition, and the parsha Ha’azinu aptly includes the poem of Moshe, illustrating the peculiar power of words in song and poem form. I would like to start out by saying that this is an edge for me to give d’var on Torah that I am not very familiar with, and in front of community. So I really appreciate the opportunity to practice and deepen my relationship to Torah, especially in this time where I am mourning and am witnessing the mourning of others around me.

So we just read the farewell epic poem-song that Moshe delivers to the Israelites, in which he explains that through keeping God’s word, the people Israel will be able to live well in the land they will enter, and warns of the consequences of forgetting and transgressing God. The emotional force of this poem is found in its esoteric language, of the disaster of “no-Gods” and “no-folk”, of “venomous wine” and “arrows drunk with blood”, of vengeance and recompense. The allegory, metaphor, and imagery in the poem bring forth the commandment to fear God, and in my reading of it, sound fiery contrary to Moshe’s gentle opening that his “speech distill as the dew, like showers on young growth, like droplets on the grass”.

Moshe knows he will not be the leader anymore. He is told by God to die on the Mountain of Nebo. Yet he pulls all of his passion to remind the people that God is their Rock, and is upright and just, evoking the complexities that ring out for generations and historical events, even to this current political moment: how can there be a just God with so much injustice? While there could be many conclusions drawn as to why there is prosperity of the wicked, of darkness in this world, Moshe pleas that the fault is not above but with our people, ourselves.

In seeking other commentary on this notion, I came across Psalm 92, one of my favorite, the song of Shabbat, and this interpretation from Rabbi Jonathan Sacks:Though “the wicked spring up like grass,” they will eventually be destroyed. The righteous, by contrast, “flourish like a palm tree and grow tall like a cedar in Lebanon.” Evil wins in the short term but never in the long. The wicked are like grass, the righteous like a tree. Grass grows overnight but it takes years for a tree to reach its full height. In the long run, tyrannies are defeated. Empires decline and fall. Goodness and rightness win the final battle. As Martin Luther King said in the spirit of the Psalm: “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”

Now, there is a lot to pull out of this on the theme of land and justice. I read a d’var earlier by a fellow activist who I took action with in the West Bank just months ago, in a coalition of Palestinians, Israelis, and internationals supporting the return of a Palestinian family to their land. She talks about the parsha in terms of tshuva and “the extreme arrogance of our institutions about Jewish entitlement to the land, the way they brush off the humanity of Palestinians and erase their stories from our view, is a modern form of idolatry.” She calls upon us to “shake our community out of its sleep and push it towards a new course.”

Typically, I would speak to this message in Moshe’s poem as a lesson to reexamine the Jewish relationship to Israel. And I am excited that this parsha is so ripe for commentary on justice. But today, this Shabbat, what is sticking out for me is about death.

Moshe is told to die just moments before entering the long-awaited promised land. He is told he will see the land, but not come there. His time is finished, and he is to leave the world.

I recently lost a baby cousin at just 2 months old. And I know there are members of our community here who have recently lost loved ones. Just this week a learned of one of my close friends losing her best friend to suicide, and a colleague losing her brother and husband to cancer, a friend losing her aunt to cancer, my partner’s sister losing a family-friend to corrupt murder in another country. These are all very intense tragedies of undue loss. I would like to ask you to join me in a brief moment of silence.

What Moshe’s experience brings to my mind is the tragedy of reaching a point in life, but dying before it is realized. Everyone will die, so the reality is that this will always be the case – there is always something more to be actualized, achieved, witnessed, surpassed, accomplished, celebrated. Death of course happens in so many different ways, so it is not always in the power of those dying to take such meritorious action as did Moses in front of the people whom he led out of slavery, led to crossing the Red Sea, receiving the Torah. Moshe took his last opportunity to speak to his people in a burst of passion and blessing.

So what I challenge to interpret from this is the swell of passion and blessing that comes from death and dying. Be it in the person leaving this physical world, their loved ones and community, others affected by the ripples of loss, or all of the above. I know in my experience of mourning, while I was struck with such pain, I have seen baby Jack’s life as a pure blessing on the hardship of my family members to know how deep and transformative love can be. - I know that for many other lives that I have honored in their passing, their gifts and those whom they touched are everlasting. Just as we, the descendants in the lineage of the Jewish people, represent the everlasting covenant Moshe implored upon us, may we honor the memory and share our passion inspired by those who have died. As we say, may their memory be for blessing.

JOB TITLE: Operations ManagerDESIRED START: Early Jan. 2018HOURS PER WEEK: 10-12ABOUT USKadima Reconstructionist Community, Seattle’s only Reconstructionist Jewish community, is hiring a part-time Operations Manager. Kadima Reconstructionist Community builds vibrant, purposeful, learning and community for Jews and our allies. Committed to racial, economic and gender justice, we bridge spirituality and social justice through Shabbat and holiday celebration, intergenerational learning, and solidarity work with #blacklivesmatter and movements to end the Israeli occupation. Kadima is located in the Madrona neighborhood of Seattle. More information at: www.kadima.org GENERAL JOB DESCRIPTION After boldly re-envisioning our membership and financial model over the last two years, Kadima’s membership, along with online presence, development work, membership outreach, and general program have all grown significantly. The Operations Manager will work 10-12 hours per week to manage and support community engagement, event and project execution, external communications, financial management, and general office management. The Operations Manager also manages the database, financial records, and other record-keeping systems. We are looking for a creative, collaborative, experienced self-starter with a passion for Kadima’s mission and values. The Operations Manager works as part of a staff team including Kadima’s full-time Rabbi and part-time Youth and Family Organizer, and coordinates with the contract bookkeeper as needed on financial accounting. The Operations Manager coordinates closely with the officers of the Board of Directors and reports to the President of the Board.MAJOR DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES 1. Community engagement and project facilitation: Support Kadima leaders and members regarding a wide range of organizational needs, projects and events. Reach out and develop members as needed for volunteer and leadership development.2. Communications execution: Social media management (mainly Facebook at present), newsletter (MailChimp), website and blog (Weebly).3. Marketing: Update external community calendars and execute a strategy for spreading excitement about Kadima events and the organization generally.4. Development support: Serve as a team member with our staff and volunteer driven activities to fundraise our budget. This includes event support, volunteer management, and effective and timely written communication.5. Financial Management: Manage membership database (Kindful) to track reimbursements, deposits, bills, fees, and donations in accordance and in support of annual budget. Support bookkeeper in annual tax preparation.6. General office management: Manage office systems, record-keeping, supplies; propose streamlining and new systems as warranted.7. Close collaboration with Board members, staff, and volunteers. Regular meetings with staff and Board officers. KEYJOB QUALIFICATIONS ● Great interpersonal and communications skills, creativity in problem-solving, and excellent teamwork.● Fluency at managing databases, financial records, social media, email, online records and office filing systems.● Experience in event-planning, volunteer coordination, logistics.●Proven ability to manage multiple projects with a high level of independence, and to hold oneself and others accountable on project and event tasks and expectations.●Proven experience as an office administrator, office assistant or similar relevant role. 2+ years of experience managing an office and project management is preferred.● Prior experience working or volunteering in a social justice or other mission-driven organization is preferred. TERMS This is a permanent, 10-12 hour/week position. Pay currently is $26/hour with possibility of future increases. Kadima also provides 24 hours of paid vacation/year and 20 hours of paid sick leave/year. The job comes with complimentary membership in Kadima and professional development. Kadima welcomes applications from all qualified candidates who meet the minimum qualifications. Kadima values diverse perspectives and life experiences, and encourages people of all backgrounds to apply, including people of color, immigrants, refugees, women, LGBTQ, people with disabilities, and veterans.HOW TO APPLY Please send a resume and brief cover letter of introduction (no more than one page) by 5 pm Dec. 8, 2017 to: jobs@kadima.org.

Bangally Fatty, a UW student, has been detained and is facing possible deportation. He is currently imprisoned in the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, but his attorneys -- students at the UW Law School -- are requesting that he be released pending the adjudication of his application for a T visa. This would enable him to continue his studies, and to serve as a parent to his three-month old daughter, while he awaits a decision in his case.

We have seen in other cases that public pressure can influence the outcome in immigration cases. Bangally has been an exceptionally conscientious student, is a valued member of our community, and especially because he is the first current student we're aware of who is facing deportation, I think it is important that our community stand by him to send a strong message that we support our students.

Limmud Festival -- a celebration of learning, community, and culture -- is coming to Seattle for the very first time this January 13-14, and we need YOU!

Limmud is a volunteer-run learning-fest hosted in 87 communities in 44 countries worldwide, dedicated to building community across the wide spectrum of what it means to be Jewish, and to celebrating Jewish learning in all its variety. From cooking to philosophy, storytelling to song leading, a lecture or a long walk outside, Limmud has a little of everything. Several Kadimaniks have been involved in organizing Limmud Seattle, and we are looking for presenters and volunteers to make the first-ever Limmud Seattle a welcoming, challenging, and lively gathering!

Interested in sharing your Jewish knowledge, skills, and passion in a session at Limmud Seattle? Register and follow the link to submit a session proposal by November 15 -- feel free to be creative! Read more about what it means to be a presenter at Limmud on our Presenter FAQ and please reach out if you have questions. (If money is a barrier, email support@limmudseattle.org requesting a sliding scale registration code)